Matt Tuckey is a writer from Oldham, England. He covers celebrities, night life, Manchester, fitness, creative writing, social media, confidence and events. Some of this may, in some way, help others. Or maybe it'll just entertain you for a while.

Monday, 31 August 2015

If
you're anything like me, you've just woken up and are trying to piece
together your bank holiday Sunday night out. Unlike me, you can't
remember because you're hammered. I was sober and I'm still having to
look through pictures and whatever I jotted on MS Onenote on the Lumia.

New
Northern Quarter bar Pen and Pencil has opened on Hilton St. Great
little arts-and-crafts-themed joint playing chilled house. Well worth
a look. We had one in here and then moved on to nearby
Kosmonaut, which translates as
“Russian astronaut”. The small bar has what I guess is a Soviet
theme- leather seats like those on old buses, painted and bare
brickwork, white tiles. It's one of the few places in the city still
playing house music. Although visually it's not what I would have
imagined I'd like, the atmosphere was great and the clientele were
good people.

We
then moved on to Lola Lo on Deansgate locks, which I don't mind, but
I think is getting a bit samey. The fire alarm going off emptied it
out at the end, and the rain killed the attendance to begin with. Top
night with the lads though. More of those to come thanks to meeting
them through Meetup.

If
you like a rummage, how about a car boot sale in Middleton?
They're always good for cheap books etc.

I'll
be joining Creative Party People on
Friday for drinks with filmmakers, graphic designers and writers. If
you're a creative type, come join us on Friday at Dukes 92 in Castlefield. Creative talk, ideas,
collaborations, but mostly getting pissed. Which is a good enough
reason for anyone to meet up. Get involved!

Further events in the city are detailed on the Manchester Evening News' What's On guide, which is always worth a look. Let
me know if there's more.

Sunday, 30 August 2015

It
seems I share a dislike of author Jonathan Franzen with another
author, that of Belle De Jour, Dr Brooke Magnanti.

National
DAB news station LBC discussed people getting motivational diet coaches on the NHS to combat obesity. I
reminded the presenter, who I guess must have been Iain Dale, that
bad diet kills more than smoking, car accidents and drugs, and that
what we're currently doing isn't working.

I'm
for some reason watching this year's Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5. In
the house is Natasha Hamilton of Atomic Kitten fame. I glass
collected at Atomic Kitten's after party in Manchester's The Living Room in 2004. They were all a bit cliquey and didn't say much to the
staff.

Also
in the house is retired porn star Jenna Jameson. Back in 2011 Jenna
tweeted that she was stuck on page 3 of mobile phone video game Angry
Birds. I replied with “Not like you to be stuck on page 3. (Does
anyone outside the UK get this joke?)” She seemed to get it.

So.
Bank holiday Sunday. One more night out tonight- nothing solid
planned but I will be out causing mayhem...

Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Leanne Brown, a singer from the group,
performed in Manchester House music club Static last Saturday. I set up a Meetup event
and welcomed everyone along. We started in nearby bar Slug and Lettuce (nice, free WiFi) and the
four of us went over to the club not long after.

It
was a strangely quiet night considering it was a Saturday and it's a
nice club with a good act on. Last time I went it was rammed, with a
tough door policy. This time there were people in the queue who I'm
sure would never have got in this time last year. No WiFi or even
reception for texts once inside.

The
music was superb: it was like a Sunday morning on Radio 1 back in
2000. Hours of back to back garage. A real nostalgia trip for aging
clubbers like myself. More than a handful of these tracks appear in
this mix.

After
1am Leanne performed her set. Great entertainment. I always find it
enjoyable to find people who were a part of my younger days in some
way, and the garage hour in Ashton's Love Shack was the highlight of
my nights out when I was 18. Sweet Female Attitude's hit Flowers was
a staple track during those times.

The
music did get a little heavy and obscure towards the end, but on the
whole it was a brilliant event that deserved to be more popular than
it was. This could be down to the music's target audience all being
old and having babies, and hanging up their clubbing gear.
Lightweights. Top night though.

These
are just three events in three different meetup groups. There's
plenty more. On Saturday you might find me in Epernay,
a fancy cocktail bar near Great Northern Warehouse in Manchester. I've never been before
but a friend is having a birthday night out there. Epernay is on a
list of places I've been meaning to check out, a list I'll probably
upload later.

Sunday, 23 August 2015

If
you work in TV, or you're trying to, you'd do well to check out this Meetup group.
It's a group for people to meet, discuss careers, share advice and
collaborate on projects. It's highly valuable for people trying to
get into the competitive field of Media. There's just one problem:
the organiser has left the group and a new one is required.

The
Meetup admins sent me an automatic email with this warning:

“Your Organizer,
amadeus hellequin, just stepped down without nominating a
replacement.

Step up to
become this Meetup Group's Organizer
and you can guide its future direction!

Other members can
help you. Ask them to suggest Meetups or even nominate a few to help
as Assistant Organizers.”

In the discussion section
Hannah Suckley has stated she's considering taking on the role and
would be looking for people to assist. If you're interested, (or
perhaps you want to compete for the position?) drop her a line.

Thursday, 20 August 2015

Ever
heard of Barclay James Harvest? The rock group were formed in my
hometown of Oldham in the seventies. They apparently didn't make many
waves in the UK but they were HUGE in Europe.

My dad has just told me this anecdote:

“Back
in the 80's I used to go to swimmer improver classes every Tuesday at
Saddleworth Pool with (BJH guitarist) John Lees and his wife Alwin. We were all
reasonably good swimmers- we just wanted to get better. We used to go
to the pub and to Indian restaurants.

“Another
couple went on holiday with them to Germany. In Oldham nobody knows
them, but when they go to Europe they'd be in the hypermarket and the
other shoppers would be nudging each other, nodding in their
direction.”

The Wikipedia page for
BJH's album Gone to Earth (1977) details an interesting rumour about
the track, “Poor Man's Moody Blues”.

“Poor
Man's Moody Blues
was written after a journalist angered the band by referring to
Barclay James Harvest as a poor
man's Moody Blues.
Shortly after, guitarist John Lees wrote a song that reminded him of
the Moody
Blues song Nights
in White Satin, and decided to use the journalist's phrase as the
song title.”

What
the page doesn't explain is that the critic had allegedly been working to a
deadline and eventually admitted that he hadn't actually listened to
the album. Can anyone confirm / deny?

Some
years after the height of their fame, the group performed a
coming-home concert in nearby town Holmfirth. My dad tells that the
sound wasn't properly engineered. Allegedly, John was “thoroughly
pissed off.”

In
about 1992 Dad, being the legend he is, managed to get me the
autographs of band members John Lees, Stuart “Wooly” Wolstenholme
and Mel Pritchard. You can't see this from the scan but there's
definite ink and pen indentation on the postcard. John is the only
living member of the original group.

Wednesday, 19 August 2015

Shit.
Gettin' old. And still don't know what the fuck. Well. What should I
do this year, I wonder...

I
STILL need to do something with this screenplay I've been sat on for
a decade now.

Get
MORE confident. I'm so close to how I want to be. I'm not leaning
back with this.

Write
something that helps people and that allows much more people to
notice this blog. I've just hit 500K this week. Doubling my hits in
the next 12 months is ambitious, but attainable with the right
access to unique, engaging content.

Cut
down on social media.

Travel.
I may have found some people who are up for this.

Learn
shorthand.

Get
a new car. This clapped out Micra is killing my street cred.

Have
a relationship.

Get
my abs back.

Get
more of a grip on the memory issues that blight my life. I'm making
huge steps with this through dealing with the NHS and doing research
online, and of course going out and practicing what I'm learning.
More improvements to come.

Tuesday, 18 August 2015

I
tried to give up chocolate for a month.
My plan was to only eat chocolate in the form of drinking chocolate,
purely for insomnia-combating purposes. In its place: fruit and
cereal bars. However, it's been July and August, and my birthday was
at the end of July. There's been a lot of chocolate selection boxes
and chocolate cake flying around, and some of it inadvertently ended
up in my mouth, and subsequently my stomach. I failed hard. Having
said that, I think I've still cut down. My mum came back from a few
weeks holiday saying I looked “chunky”: she was obviously
referring to the traps and pecs as I've made a few improvements at
the gym and she's not the only one to have noticed.

So
there.

Anyway.
In the last month I've been trying to keep fit and beat PBs at the
gym.

15th July
– 15th August

Cable
crunch with metal handle (weight 15) – 15 more reps to total

Cable
crunch with rope handle (weight 15) – 10 more reps to total

Leg
press – 2 more notches

Horizontal dumbbell fly- 1 weight up. First improvement made on this movement
since January.

I'm
going to try this project again. I'm going to have to wait until I've
eaten everything that everyone gave me for my birthday first though.
I'll try and space it out.

Monday, 17 August 2015

Erotica
festival Sexhibition comes to town Friday and lasts all weekend. It's this week's go-to
place for “live music, DJ sets, burlesque, cabaret, and performance
art”. You know it's your thing. Stop pretending. I honestly don't
recognise many names of guests or organisations being a part of it,
but maybe you're more of a pervert than I am and you do. Which is no
bad thing. Contains everything from pole dancing classes to BDSM for
beginners. Event tickets start from a fiver.

If
you're into you're Sci-fi and Fantasy, maybe the Big Geek Quiz
is your thing. Head down to movie-themed Bar 21 on Tuesday night,
8pm.

I
have something special for you Saturday night. Remember Flowers, by
Sweet Female Attitude?

The
group are playing in Static this
Saturday. The Groovebox event looks like it's
going to be a sellout. If you fancy joining me, I've put an event up
on Manchester Social Group
here. There are still
a few tickets available here-
get on it! Smart attire people!

Thursday, 13 August 2015

I
haven't done much with my feature screenplay. I have sped up my
typing, though, which was what I wanted to do to make dabbling with
the script a lot easier.

In
the last year, I have traveled a little. I've been to Newcastle and
Albufeira, but you need people to travel with and everyone's broke.
So it's a start.

I've
done a ton of work on my stomach, cutting out fatty food, boxing,
gym, extra cardio... I can tell I'm certainly fitter as I can get
through the cardiotone class without gassing, and my chest is a lot
wider than it was, but the abs still aren't showing. Cutting out chocolate is
going to work though.

I've
written a few things that I think might be helping people, mostly to
do with the Meetup
site. I'm trying to encourage people to get out and meet new friends
and stay social, something that's vital to a healthy mind. More to
the point, it's fun.

I'm
still not famous, and neither is my writing. Another 6 months. Just
watch.

I've
made a bit of confidence progress here and there. Getting somewhere.
More work to be done though.

I
tried to cut down on social media, as a few people have advised me
to. It's backfired, though, and I'm using it more. But at least
Meetup is for getting involved with groups in person, rather than
for staring at a feed of people you haven't seen in years, and desperately trying to impress them.

It
occurs to me a year later that 9 is the same as 7.

I've
not done too bad with sleeping, after using the advice from the
sleep wellbeing course. See here and
here.

Tuesday, 11 August 2015

I
like my Manchester nightlife, as you've probably noticed unless this
is your first visit to the site. I've written a lot about the places
to which I give my seal of approval. But what about the places I
won't go to? And why won't I go there? And more to the point, if we
have the same taste, which places should you avoid like chlamydia?

1) Yorkshire
St

The
whole of Oldham's bar strip can do one. I haven't been in years. The
place is populated by crazed neo-nazi sociopaths, stalkers, weirdos
and people who clearly haven't set foot out of their own borough
since last August's trip to Benedorm. Thankfully the bar strip has
been dying a death since the Panorama documentary
aired in '09, exposing the town's horrendous problems with alcohol
and violence.

2) Walkabout

Every
branch of this Australasian franchise is the same- dodgy mainstream
spirits, overpriced, sticky floors, tacky décor, shite pop music
that should have been kept in landfill since 2007, gold-chain-wearing
roid-heads desperate to prove themselves and women who think they're
Christina Aguliera (but more resemble The Fat Slags from the Viz
comic). Manchester's Quay St branch may be larger than most, but it's
no exception.

3) Jilly's
Rockworld

Me
and rock music do not mix. I like some of the songs, but the venue as
a whole is as far from “my thing” as you can get.

4) 5th
Avenue

Similar
to the above only on a smaller scale- indie music leaves me cold.
Bland clientele with minimal female talent. Floor like a swamp.

5) 42nd
Street

Another
indie venue of similar appearance and sound. In fact, in about 2007 I
went to meet some people in 5th Ave but forgot where it
was and strayed into 42nd without even thinking. It was
only when I saw the 42nd emblems on the walls that the
penny dropped and I realised I had to trek across town to meet my
mates in an equally depressing hellhole.

6)
Revolucion De Cuba

I
went here on the opening night and received more than my fill of
Daddy Yankee, Pitbull and J-Lo. Slow bar service. It's drinks menu is
mostly rum-based, so as a whisky drinker I wasn't bowled over. Yawn.
Crowded, slow service. Also, I got stalked by some twins who go here
a lot.

7)
Stalyvegas

The
bar centre of Stalybridge used to be decent when nightclub Rififi was
open and playing house and dance music. After a while it slipped into
the realm of mainstream, and with it came the roided up 18-year-olds
desparate to prove themselves, which resulted in the original
clientele sacking it off and shelling out for Manchester instead. The
club died a death and surrounding bars soon followed suit.

8)
Mojo

Small
cramped indie venue out near Quay Street. Sorry, but when
Spinningfields' The Avenue is right next door, there's really no
reason for me to have a “down and dirty” night.

9)
Walrus

Not
an easy one to explain- it's not badly designed, quite smart, has a
decent clientele with a handful of good looking women- even the
music's pretty good with 00's era RnB and a bit of house thrown in.
But it's also very cramped, and the Yellow Submarine theme of the
design is a bit too gimmicky for repeated visits.

10)
Venus

The
amount of times I've had problems with this Blackfriars Rd venue is
ridiculous. Their nights are “regulars only”, so you have to be
turned down a few times before the doormen recognise you and give you
a chance. It's like getting into Project Mayhem in Fight Club, only
instead of a dilapidated building it's a swanky but soulless
rectangular box playing house music. It's populated largely by
stuck-up dolly birds and steroid abusers desperate to prove that they
aren't just pretty boys (which is subjective to begin with). It's a
shame because I have met a few decent people there, and the DJs are
superb.

11)
The Gay Village

Yes.
The entirety of the Gay Village is off limits for me for a number of
reasons.

First,
the narrow streets are a perfect prowling ground for pickpockets, of
which there are many in Manchester. Watch out for people trying to
salsa dance with you- they're after your phones, and they are
surprisingly good at it. Second, the music in the Village is dire,
even by cheesy standards. It's another level. If Revolucion De Cuba
is Wensleydale, AXM is pure Gorgonzola. It's off the chart
horrendous. Third, straight guys like me get HOUNDED in the village.
We get lots of unwanted attention, on a level that we don't get
anywhere else, and it leaves me feeling like I've got to watch my
back at every moment. Fourth, The Village includes Canal Street, an
area of canal water. It's right next to a load of bars in which
people get drunk. And people do drown in those canals. It's never
been a good idea to have the two factors so close together, but in
recent years this has been a particular hazard- a number of bodies
were pulled out of the canals in Manchester Centre. Canal Street has
been a popular drinking area for decades, but these deaths have only
occurred in recent years. Fifth- many suspect the deceased- all men-
were murdered. I believe it's possible.

12) Vina
Karaoke

This
Portland Street dive is largely full of drunk people who think they
can sing, but cannot. You'll be waiting a long time if you want to
join the karaoke queue- at least an hour on a Saturday night. Crowded
and plain (aside from the fluorescent seats that change colour like a
bad acid trip). Some drunk chav offered me a free bump of cocaine in
the toilets. I politely declined.

13) Ashton-Under
Lyne

I
used to drink here every Thursday night back in 2000-2001. It was a
weekly ritual in college, and I did it basically to fit in. The bars
were dull and the music was shit, apart from an hour of garage and
R'n'B in Loveshack (appropriately known as Shit Shack). The men
outnumbered the women 2:1 and the females you came across were
rarely good-looking (there was the odd exception, before my contacts
there kick off). There were never enough taxis, even on a Thursday, so you ended up risking being punched by a chav in the cab queue outside the market.

14) Oxford
Road

I
used to live just off Oxford Rd in Manchester's student area. The
stretch of the street caters to students who only want alcohol- no
conversation, no particular style of music other than cheese, no
range of visual style, just dull box-like rooms with a bar in it
playing Two Princes and Chesney Hawkes numerous times a night. Enough
to put you off going to uni and getting into debt in the first place.

15) Royton

A
small town on the outskirts of Oldham, Royton caters to people who
have a particular desire to either drive souped-up Golfs around town
mouthing off at people, or to throw bottles at said drivers.

16) Chadderton

A
very deprived area of Oldham with high racial tension and low
cleanliness. If you really want a suicidal night, check out The
Cartoon, a pub for teenagers with steroid rage (and the acne to
match), who kick off with their own girlfriends and punch the fruit
machines.

17) Saddleworth

Scenic
with plenty of greenery, if you like that kind of thing, but it still
has its fair share of knobheads. Uppermill can frequently be rough.
Miles from anywhere metropolitan. A nightmare to get in and out of
when it snows. Some of the smaller villages like Delph and Dobcross
are impossible to find without a satnav. Like the Gay Village,
Uppermill has a load of drinking establishments right next to an
un-cordoned canal. (It's never the wisest idea, but side issue: why
don't people fall into the canals in Saddleworth? Why only the Gay
Village?)

The
biggest pub in Manchester is also one of the chavviest.
Terribly-dressed clientele, shit pop music, dull drinks and... well,
it's a Wetherspoons. They're all the same.

21) Hula

Tikki
“dive bar” in the Northern Quarter. The name says it all- it's a
dive. Built like a shack, cramped, adourned with thousands of
photographs like the home of a crazed detective trying to solve too
many mysteries at once. I'm not a rum fan, so the drinks I don't
find particularly exciting.

22) Liars
Club

Another
Tikki bar on Back Bridge Street off Deansgate. As far as I'm
concerned it's indistinguishable from the above.

23) The
Ritz

I
used to like the Wednesday Love Train nights back in my student days,
but that now the club has been “refurbished” at the cost of £2
million the 70's-themed disco-fest has been cut from the roster. The
club looks no different after the apparent makeover. I went more
recently on a Saturday. Music was too heavy. I like my house music,
but it was all a bit tech-y for my tastes. Also, the male-to-female
ratio included no fit women in the noticeably cock-heavy crowd.

24) Wave
Bar

It
occurs to me writing this that the whole of Portland Street needs a
makeover. Or maybe not- the people I've met there have usually been
trouble, and the bars are a dump anyway. Keep them there.

25) Rogue
bar

Next
door to Wave. Similar clientele, worse décor.

26) Baby
Blue

I'm
not in the habit of frequenting lap dancing clubs, but the one time I
went to this one was when EVERYWHERE was dead on a Friday night about
4 years ago. Rough venue, average-looking dancers, mostly drunk and
coked up girls who can't dance and would still be overpriced even if
it smartened up.

27) Waxy
O'Connor's

I
tend to stay away from the Printworks as a general rule of thumb, but
this particular Irish bar's wooden décor and cramped multi-storey
layout makes me feel like a hobbit that never left the shire.

28) Lock
91

Cramped,
low-roofed public house opposite Deansgate Locks. Just felt very
claustrophobic to me. But, I was there for a very busy event.

29) Temple
Bar

Although
this is an Oxford Rd bar, I felt it necessary to list this separate
to number 14) as the majority of the street caters for students, but
not this bar. Close to the St Peter's Square where the road changes
its name to Peter St, The Temple is a bar that was converted from
public toilets some years ago. Great if you like cramped awkward
settings, no fire exits, leather-clad sweaty bikers and women that
could easily beat you up.

30) The
Ducie

Very
old and run-down pub out near the CIS buildings beyond the Northern
Quarter. I only ever went there because some strange guy I was mates
with liked to go to get hammered and perform terrible karaoke. You
still see the roughest clientele in the city sat on the benches
outside on a Saturday evening, arguing about which tracksuit is best
to go out in or how to score crack the cheapest. Or whatever.

31) Satan's
Hollow

Rock
venue on Princess St. Could have sworn I went here when I was 18 and
hated it, but that was 15 years ago. I'm looking through the pictures
right now. I don't recognise it, but I'm sure as shit not going.

32) Bella
Italia

There's
a branch of this chain Italian restaurant in Piccadilly Gardens. I
went twice in around 2000 / 2001: the first time 2 of us got food
poisoning, the second time the girl who did the first time ordered
what I'm sure was the same dish and got food poisoning again.

33) Corbieres

Described
as a “wine cavern” on Google, this hidden-away watering hole is
designed to look like it's carved out of a giant rock on Half Moon St
near the Royal Exchange. A concave-roofed affair blasting indie music
on a juke box, the claustrophobic bar- not unlike the cantina from
Star Wars, but without the puppets- has astoundingly-good reviews on
Google. By people who like that kind of thing.

34) Crazy
Pedros

Another
dive bar that looks as if it'll fall down next week. Not far from
Liars and Mojo, if you want a suicidal night out.

35) The
Ruby Lounge

Rock
venue in the Northern Quarter. I had a mate in a punk band who was
“singing” there. I felt very out of place. Shame, because its
former incarnation- Ohm- was a cool house music club. (But then,
there were a handful of arseholes then too.)

So
if you're a person after my own heart, male or female, you might not
enjoy these places. So where might you enjoy instead? Well, stay
tuned for further posts and you'll get plenty of ideas...

Monday, 10 August 2015

I've
spotted a few interesting opportunities across the city and on social
media this week. They aren't all occurring in the next seven days,
however opportunities may pass you by if you don't book tickets fast.

US
novelist and author of The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen, is in
Manchester Saturday 3rd
October at a Waterstones event. I tried reading The Corrections recently
and couldn't get into it for the life of me, but he's certainly
popular. Tickets will go fast. I've already met him, so
I'll give it a miss.

Thanks
for reading my blog. I've now made it to 500,000 hits. It's only
taken, what, nearly 8 years? Well. I have plans to give you juicy
info that you can't get anywhere else, so the next half million
shouldn't take anywhere near as long to get. But more importantly,
I'm enjoying blogging now more than I ever have. Alongside that, I'm
more confident than I've ever been, and will continue to build on
that.

Sunday, 9 August 2015

I'm
not normally a Jazz fan, but seeing as Manchester Jazz Festival 2015
is in full swing (pun?) and seeing as a friend suggested it, I dived
into local jazz hub Matt & Phred's
to see Gypsies of Bohemia on Thursday night. I know this is a cliché, but I didn't expect to
enjoy it- I just wanted to see what jazz was about.

I
queued for 50 minutes to get in, but it was surprisingly comfortable
once we'd made it in: a calm atmosphere with mint fragrance and
20-something hipsters with out-of-control facial hair filling the
floor. On the stage: a singer, a pianist, a bassist and a drummer
entertained the crowd with surprising skill. They weren't some bunch
of old schoolmates fresh out of a dad's garage. Each member knew
their instruments well- the singer included- and had obviously spent
years perfecting their craft. As I entered, I didn't recognise the
song that was playing until the melody started to emerge- a cover of something from my
youth, or maybe my 20s. It was fast, and manically-played, and it
took a moment from it to dawn on me I was listening to Britney
Spears' Toxic done on a bass, guitars and a piano.

The
group quickly rolled back the clock, and treated us to a medley of
nineties and naughties hits done in a jazz-stylee, blended seamlessly
aside from a few breaks for water and- presumably- so the pianist
could rest his lightning-speed fingers. Jesus Christ. I've never seen
anything like it.

The
singer- not looking a long way off Jesus Christ with his beard and
robe- displayed surprising range, going from a brilliant rendition of
Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's Boom! Shake the Room through to
nailing Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. Even the Prodigy's No Good
Start The Dance appeared, mixed into other songs in part, with the
musicians transitioning between tracks in perfect harmony.

I'd
been meaning to try Matt and Phreds for about a decade, when I was
getting ready to finish uni and making plans for what I could do once
I got a steady wage. Hmm. Well, I got there eventually, and I loved
it. Each track came with a penny-drop moment when you realise what
you're listening to, which in itself was funny and unexpected. I'd
never been to a jazz club before but I suppose the dim lighting and
woodwork suits the music and relaxed mood.

Absurdly
enjoyable. Keep your eyes peeled for the Gypsies of Bohemia. I went
to the gig- which I think might actually be my first gig- with
someone I met through Meetup, through the After Works Drinks group.
There was going to be a few of us but, hey, it was a weeknight. This
shows that, for making new friends and seeing more of the city,
Meetup is working.

Tuesday, 4 August 2015

The Hacienda: a legendary
nightclub and concert venue on Whitworth Street, Manchester. It closed
in 1997 while I was still in school, for financial reasons, but I'd
heard about it's dominance on the Manchester club scene for many
years: Kiss 102 would report on their nights and would advertise
upcoming clubbing events there. I never got a chance to experience a
Hacienda night, but this weekend I came about as close as you could
get.

Hacienda was a tribute night held Saturday 1st August at Manchester's Albert Hall on Peter St, just a few streets
away from the club's original location.

Albert
Hall, a former church until nightclub chain Brannigans bought the
basement in the 90s, has been open in its current form for a couple
of years. Brannigans closed in 2011, and the venue reopened under its
original name in 2014. The church itself has been renovated into a
unique clubbing experience, and one that perfectly suits a tribute
night for The Hacienda.

You'd
think a club like this would be popular with Manchester's aging
ravers, of which there must be quite a few in the city. The night was
more popular, however, with late teens and early twenties, so my
group of thirty-somethings were the ones who felt old. Having said
that, the DJs chosen for the night were residents at the original
club. They've still got it, and throughout the night the DJs-
appearing in an ascending order of probable familiarity- steadily transgressed the music from piano house through to hard dance and
techno.

The
DJ booth at The Albert Hall is iconically placed symmetrically in
front of the church's huge organ, an iconic set-piece for the club's decor. (And obviously, a fully functioning musical instrument in its
heyday, that has wisely been left in place by he club's designers.
The promoters for the Hacienda night took skillful advantage of this
and projected onto each individual organ pipe, creating and eclectic
and mesmerizing animated background. On the woodwork the black-and-yellow hazard stripes nodded to the design of the original club.

Original Hacienda DJ and producer of The M People, Mike Pickering warmed up as the club started to fill. (Pickering is now A&R for The Ting Tings and Calvin Harris, among others.) After
5 hours of dancing in a church- eventually to heavy electronica- we
found the music to become a little more familiar. The penultimate
track, a housed-up version of Jackson 5's Can You Feel It, punctuated
the end of the night with a second or two of silence- from the
speakers, at least. Danny Tenaglia
handed over to Francois K, who continued the house music. He finished his set with a remix of Candy Staton's You've Got the Love,
over which an image of the now-deceased Hacienda owner Tony Wilson looked down over all
of us, before the lights came up and security began ushering us out
onto the street.

Monday, 3 August 2015

Tickets
for Blackpool Comic Con are on sale
now! I've got mine. It isn't until the 12th September but
the tickets are flying out already. In attendance will be Michael
Madsen (Mr Blonde from Reservoir Dogs) and Nancy Allen (Officer Lewis from Robocop)!
I am ALL over it. If you fancy getting involved and have no-one to go
with, I've put an event up on Manchester Social Group.

Would You Like to Write for Power is a State of Mind?

Here at PIASOM I'm looking for guest bloggers to get involved. I want you to:1) Tell the world about the superb city of Greater Manchester. If know of something quirky, awesome, bizzare or important happening, why not get involved?2) Show me your ideas of producing great literature. Do you perform excercises at a writing group? Do you compete in poetry slams / rap battles? Are you setting up a magazine? Tell me and get your writing seen. More info:http://powerisastateofmind.blogspot.com/2011/03/would-you-like-to-write-for-power-is.html